Nicole C. Rust, PhD is an Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Visual Memory Lab at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Rust combines behavioral, neural, and computational approaches to understand the brain’s remarkable ability to remember the things we’ve seen, focusing on where and how visual memories are stored. As a complement to this foundational research, she also works to develop new therapies to treat memory dysfunction.

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Dr. Rust is currently writing a book on brain research for Princeton University Press which she hopes will inspire multidisciplinary and community-based conversations. In it, she argues that true progress in our understanding of the brain will require an ambitious and unprecedented collaboration between scientists, clinicians, engineers, and society.

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She has been recognized by the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences, McKnight Scholar Award, a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Charles Ludwig Distinguished Teaching Award and election to the Memory Disorders Research Society. Previously she received a BS in molecular biology and chemistry from the University of Idaho, her PhD in neuroscience from NYU, and completed her postdoctoral training at MIT.